私の生きた証拠

First some general comments. The lessons were pretty boring, and needless to say there wasn’t anything mentioned that I can’t learn by myself. Commodity prices are terrible, as expected. The shopping’s fine with regards to memorabilia but not so good with respect to books (which still cost a lot but not terribly expensive as compared to Singapore) or food (which invariable cost too much and no one ever seems to want to contemplate a sit-down dinner (which is likely to be fairly astronomically priced for ordinary fare).

So far the highlights include a tour of the city of Cambridge, which featured at least two hours on a boat propelled by a person pushing a very long rod against the river bottom (I dread to even think about the erosion but let’s put that aside for the moment), something called ‘punting’. As I was far from the end where the boat’s supposed to be propelled from I didn’t go for a turn on the rod (and anyway it looked difficult), and contented myself with taking pictures incessantly until my batteries died on me (and good lord they served me for a long time - call it 300 pictures?) and sometimes using the paddle (seemingly to little effect) to correct the course when the going got tough (by far the most efficient way to correct a course is to use the paddle to push off the wall or another boat). Other highlights would include heading to the Cavendish Laboratories (where I took lots of useless pictures), the Institute of Astronomy (where we used William Herschel’s ancient but still-functioning telescope to see some stuff and a smaller portable reflector for other things, and some time at a smaller refractor to see the sun being projected onto a piece of paper (which looked pretty featureless) and through a smaller telescope with a filter attached (only to see a boring orange disc). At least I got to see Jupiter and the four Galilean moons nicely arranged. Where else? In London we went to the London Eye (some giant Ferris wheel which is an excuse for a camwhoring session), and a River Thames cruise (the guide’s pretty funny, he made quite a few jokes that some people didn’t get because they’re just too dumb to get Brit humor). We also saw a little of Trafalgar Square and Harrods (the massive and poorly-organized shopping centre/department store). At Harrods I found a book with lots of messages for Princess Diana (whose pwnage coincided with the Harrods founder or something; there’re a couple of statues and a coin pool as well). I wrote one in Japanese, which went: 天国で神の元にゆっくり休め [Rest well by God’s side in Heaven] (yes I know I got a Kanji or two wrong, but it doesn’t matter). On the street in London with my Canon S3IS I really was mistaken for Japanese. There’s got to be something about Canon long zooms that sets users apart (but the other Canon long zoom operator on the trip, Daniel Foo, is a hopeless amateur who uses THE EXTERNAL LCD SCREEN to take pictures [I use the viewfinder LCD and often manual controls]. In London at Harrods’ Water(something) bookstore I bought a book entitled “American Shogun - MacArthur; Hirohito and the American Duel with Japan” by a Robert Harvey. It’s proving to be interesting, but I won’t be elaborating on it. While on the way to London I spent the entire journey reading 美しい国へ [Toward a Beautiful Country] by the Prime Minister Abe Shinzo (内閣総理大臣　安倍晋三). I find myself agreeing with him pretty much all the time, but the recent 参議院 (House of Councilors) elections didn’t really go down well. I’ll just see how things turn out (but the former Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro [元内閣総理大臣　小泉純一郎]’s still my hero).

Breakfast and supper here at New Hall’s generally decent (breakfast is invariably fried eggs [with barely a trace of oil and usually with the yolk half-cooked], scrambled eggs, boiled mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, hashbrowns, bagels, croissants, waffles, sausages, bacon, coffee, tea, blackcurrant drink, orange ‘juice’, apples, bananas, , muffins [supply now depleted from overgrabbing] cereals and baked beans. I haven’t tried everything yet but I’m already getting a little sick of the lack of variety. Dinner’s a random dish [so far with baked chicken, broccoli baked in what seems to be cheese, tortillas with broccoli, fear-factor-class spring rolls with unknown stuffing], and staples like cucumber, sliced raw tomato (which I eat a lot of; plus breakfast it’s something like 4 full tomatoes a day for me), and a cake or pie [so far with chocolate fudge, apple pie, some weird pie and perhaps others that slipped my mind. Oddly enough there’s no tea or coffee to go with dinner, but that’s a minor problem. Tap water’s supposedly potable but the chalky taste sucks. I’m not exactly starving during lunch but I don’t exactly buy much to eat (see elaboration later).

Foodstuff bought and consumed (or partially) include a cheap sub from Subway (a six-inch for 1.99 POUNDS), a bottle each of Marks and Spencer Diet Ginger Ale (50p) and Ginger Beer (99p), a bottle of spring water (67p), a rather large sausage (1.50 Pounds), six chocolate macaroons (around 1.50 pounds; can’t remember exactly how much), and perhaps some other stuff on the side (from Cambridge town itself), and while in London (which I went on the 5th of August locally) they were two bottles of Coca Cola (can’t recall how much, maybe 1.4 Pounds which is REALLY cheap since I got them from Tesco), a piece of game pie (featuring pheasant venison and a lot of godknowswhat for 2.65 from Harrods), minestrone soup (1.50 from Harrods), three doughnuts (original glazed for 95p from Harrods, powdered with strawberry filling for maybe 1.20 and a maple glazed one for also about 1.20 from Tesco), a strange marcaroni and chicken thingy for 94p (discounted from 1.87 since it’s expiring), and a steak and ale pie (1.95; haven’t eaten it yet, hope I don’t forget). I wonder why I am listing down all the food, but in any case the expenditures on food are minimized since when having lessons I just pack bread off the breakfast buffet and eat it later at lunch. No wonder the Brits are poor in terms of purchasing power parity - their meals cost too much with respect to things like books. And in any case we know why Singaporean heads are all so empty - the books cost too much with respect to food and hence they prefer to stuff themselves with food (and crap) rather than knowledge. Anyway that’s a minor point.

The weather was okay when I got here, but it’s now getting pretty hot (I’m sort of sweating in my kimono now), especially today in London with the sun getting unbearable. On the astronomy observation night (which was I think on the 3rd) it was pretty cold, but without my jacket it was still bearable. Decent I’d say, but when it gets hot there’s no way to get cool since not all that many places have air conditioning (and the classroom’s always terrible).

Facilities in general are terrible, the toilet cubicle having no wash basin (though there are some in the rooms, and by the way that doesn’t make any sense but it’s the truth) and the shower being fixed and the water can’t seem to drain if splashed outside the tiny curtained area (makes you wonder how fat people get showering done), and the water’s so hard (meaning laden with chalk) that when I tried making tea a layer of tea-colored chalk was staining the edge of my mug (which by the way is a nice one with the University of Cambridge crest and 23 college crests on it).

Shopping as I said was okay for memorabilia, and I got stuff ranging from keychains to postcards to pens and playing cards (and some mugs; I’ve yet to decide who to give them to). I also bought a polo shirt with an embroidered University crest and the words ‘Cambridge University’ for 15.99 (and I wore it for the outing to London). A Trinity College coaster is lying unused and unpacked. When we head to Oxford for a visit I’ll be sure to grab something from there as well. Basically it’s a lot of random objects; comment if you want me to get anything for you (depending on who you are I might or might not charge you for it, but seeing that no one reads the blog I don’t expect any replies). Oh I also bought two flags - both gigantic ones, one of the United Kingdom (Union FLAG, not JACK) and one of the European Union (or Council of Europe, whichever you prefer). The EU flag’s now hanging from the wardrobe. I need to get another shirt or two with the Cambridge name or crest, and perhaps even a jacket or something.

A note about my roommate Mr. Aaron Tan Wei-en (who complained about me looping the same song until he could almost sing it [the song in question is ゆめおぼろ, the OP of the anime 桃華月憚 by 喜多村英梨 and two others]) - he likes to play Axis and Allies, and it does seem that he has nothing much to do except play the game (he is at present having an instant noodle party somewhere, which is why he isn’t hogging my 12-meter LAN cable). But we don’t usually get on each other’s nerves and so it’s pretty good. He sleeps upstairs and I downstairs. And the staircase sucks, mind you. I’ll photograph it sometime and show how it is possibly only marginally better than a ladder. Oh and he bought himself a Union Flag and the Federal Republic of Germany one (which he now hangs from the wardrobe upstairs).

This is meant to be brief and there I’ve gone and ranted so much. Anyway it’s a good thing since I might forget about whatever that’s gone on if I keep putting the writing off. Think I shall be getting to bed soon. Oh well.

Mum rocks. Yeah I’m not kidding. Love you, mum.

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